If, after the shelving of the space shuttle program, you feared that America had lost its adoration for space travel, this should help. In July, 46 years to the day after the first moon walk, the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., started its first Kickstarter campaign, asking for money to preserve the spacesuit Neil Armstrong wore when he stepped off Apollo 11 onto the moon in 1969. Designed to withstand solar radiation, drastic changes in temperature, and objects traveling faster than the speed of sound, the suit is failing miserably at surviving the inevitability of time. The campaign requested $500,000 to restore the suit before its unveiling at "Destination Moon," a permanent exhibit that will open in 2019. The goal was met in just five days. By the end of the campaign one month later, $719,779 had been donated by more than 9,400 backers.

It's not about making the suit "new," but preserving the state it was in when Armstrong got home.

The Smithsonian could have raised this much money in the traditional manner, by schmoozing donors at galas, but in a way, asking the public for cash is appropriate. The Smithsonian Institution was founded with $500,000 from a British scientist who never set foot in the United States but wanted to create an institution for "the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." That all-for-one spirit is the same as the one that pushed us to explore space in the first place. And though few of us will ever set foot on the moon, the success of the Smithsonian's fund-raising effort proves that we'll spend the money to make sure future generations are still inspired by the effort it took to pull it off.

The Restoration

Cathleen Lewis, curator of international space programs and spacesuits, and Lisa Young, objects conservator, explain how the museum will use the Kickstarter money to protect Armstrong's suit.

When NASA built the suit, it was concerned with only one thing: getting the astronauts to the moon and back. The suit designers didn't care about museum exhibits, so they chose to use a mix of natural and synthetic rubbers with a six-month life span. In fact, they couldn't order the suits too early or they would degrade before the mission was complete. Today the rubber has become brittle. Oxidation, UV radiation, and temperature are all factors in the deterioration, so a new display case with a ventilation system will stabilize the rubber at 65 degrees Fahrenheit, 30 to 34 percent relative humidity, and about 100 lux.

Removal of Aluminum Corrosion

The aluminum on the suit—primarily the red and blue buttons and arm disconnects—has oxidized and could become riddled with corrosion pits. Conservators have tested several removal options, including lasers, air abrasion, and old-fashioned hand tools. Everything they've tried has removed more of the original material than they'd like, so a portion of the Kickstarter money will be used to test corrosion inhibitors used in military and commercial applications. The compound they identify will be applied throughout the spacesuit collection, which includes 400 pairs of gloves with aluminum components.

Preservation of Moondust

Conservation isn't about making the suit "like new," but preserving the state it was in when Armstrong got home. Like any article of work wear, the suit needs a good cleaning, but the moondust on the suit can stay. Conservators will use tweezers under a microscope or a tweezer vacuum, which uses a tiny suction tip to pick up delicate materials, to remove debris without disturbing the dust. This actually isn't so difficult: The lack of atmosphere on the moon creates very sharp dust particles. These have embedded themselves deeper in the suit's fabric than a surface cleaning should reach.

Smithsonian

Stripping of Surface Coatings

Sometimes past preservation is the enemy of current conservation: Protective coatings, such as those applied to Armstrong's suit before it was allowed on a post- mission tour, often break down before the object itself. Research will determine exactly what coatings have been applied—conservators suspect Teflon—and whether mechanical or chemical means should be used to remove them.

Support

The suit needs a mannequin to hold it up. But because the suit doesn't fully unzip, the mannequin has to be assembled inside it. Additionally, the support system needs to hold the gloves and helmet, which can't be attached—in part because residual lunar dust can lock up their couplings. Colleagues throughout the Smithsonian are building a prototype mannequin, which will then be replicated for the rest of the museum's spacesuits.

Ventilation

As materials in the suit break down, they undergo a process called off-gassing, in which they emit harmful chemicals in gaseous form. Rubber, for example, off-gasses hydrogen chloride, which is highly acidic and damages other materials in the suit. To combat this, the suit's new display case will include a chemical scrubber to bond with the gases and pull them out of circulation. Finding a suitable scrubber will be a challenge, as the molecules conservators need to trap are much smaller than typical pollutants.

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